Local Innovations for Growth in Central and Eastern Europe

Published by the OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme

Local development strategies represent an important response to the challenges of globalisation, while providing a mechanism for seizing the new opportunities that globalisation offers. Yet designing and implementing a local strategy is a much more difficult process than often imagined. It involves bringing together diverse objectives in the fields of skills development, innovation and social inclusion; involving stakeholders from the public and private sectors and civil society; setting up the right governing structure, and providing appropriate financing. The challenges facing local actors in developing effective strategies are all the more acute in Central and Eastern Europe. How can they be addressed? What are the best local practices? What is the role of government?

Nearly two decades after the fall of the Berlin wall, it is time to evaluate progress made and identify what needs to be done to speed up the drive towards prosperity in Central and Eastern Europe. This book demonstrates that the success of local development strategies depends on the capacity of the government and its partners to accelerate change within the policy and governance aspects of economic and social development. Local innovations for growth may seem especially vulnerable in a rapidly changing world, but there is much government can do to influence their development and enhance their impact on the economy and society. Local Innovations for Growth in Central and Eastern Europe is essential reading for policy-makers, academics and practitioners both within the region, and elsewhere.

Table of contents:

Executive SummaryChapter 1. Local Innovations for Growth in Central and Eastern Europe: Policy and Goveranance Issues by Sylvain GiguèreChapter 2. Local Governance for Economic Development: A Comparative Analysis of Canadian and Irish Conditions and its Lessons for Poland by David J. A. DouglasChapter 3. Governance and Local Economic Development: In Search of an Apporpriate Governance Structure for Croatia by Ivana Rasic Bakaric, Marijana Sumpor and Jelena SisinackiChapter 4. Building a Governance Framework that Enables the Establishment of Partnerships in Slovenia: Comparison with Ireland and Finland by Zdenka KovacChapter 5. Strengthening Non-Governmental Organisations fo More Effective Local Governance and Partnership in Serbia by Vlandan Jeremic and Zeljko SevicChapter 6. Enforcing the Participation of Civil Society in Local Decision Making: The Lessons from the South-East Europe Experience by Haralambos KondonisChapter 7. Participatory Democracy: From Ideals to Realities - the Lessons from Three Localities in Croatia by Irena Dokic, nenad Starc and Paul StubbsChatper 8. Mobilising the Population for Maximum Impact: UNDP's Experience in Albania by Kalyan PandeyChapter 9. Institutions, Governance, and the Development of Entrepreneurship in Central and Eastern Europe by David SmallboneChapter 10. The Existence of Public-Private Partnerships in Financing Entrepreneurship in Eastern Germany and Poland by Holger KuhleChapter 11. Community Development Banking to Foster Entrepreneurship: A Comparison between Experiments in Hungary and Poland by Zeljko SevicChapter 12. Tackling the Problem of Inadequate Financing for Local Development: The Case of Croatia by Dubravka Jurlina AlibegovicChatper 13. Fostering Local Development in Bulgaria: The Need of Fiscal Decentralisation by Desislava StoilovaChapter 14. Fiscal Autonomy and the Incentives to Stimulate Business Growth and Efficient Public Goods Provision: the Case of Belarus by Irina KolesnikovaAbout the Authors

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